Hall of fame for swim queen

Camera IconWinner: Nine-time Paralympics gold medallist Priya Cooper with some of her medals.

Former Australian swim queen Priya Cooper believes society’s growing acceptance of people with disabilities has been fast-tracked by the performances of the nation’s Paralympic stars.

The West Australian can reveal that Cooper, a nine-time Paralympics gold medallist, will be inducted tomorrow night into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame alongside others including cricket great Ricky Ponting and motorsport superstar Casey Stoner at a ceremony in Melbourne.

The 41-year-old said yesterday that the focus on Paralympic sports at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, where she claimed her last gold medal, had been the catalyst for a wider understanding of disability issues.

“It was such a magical time,” Cooper, who was born with cerebral palsy and grew up in Lesmurdie, said.

“It was the first time we really had the athletes all working in together and it made a massive difference because there wasn’t that divide.

“I’m really glad about that because disability can affect anyone’s life at any point.

“I’m so grateful that I was part of this changing landscape of acceptance.”

Cooper’s husband Rodney Bonsack was also a Paralympic swimmer, who had both legs severed above the knees in an aircraft accident in 1987.

They have three children and run motivational business Success Is A Choice Global, which is designed to help people maximise their lives.

“The mission is to teach people how to have a gold medal consciousness in whatever they’re doing,” Cooper said.

“Just to teach people how to have that and flick the switch to go from knowing they want to do something that’s great, to actually doing it and taking those steps. It’s just persistence in overcoming the setbacks.”

Cooper said her hall of fame induction had been “totally unexpected” but had prompted her to revisit the highlights of a career that twice earned her the honour of carrying the Australian flag at the respective closing ceremonies for the 1992 and 1996 Paralympic Games.

It was the remarkable result of taking up swimming to help her deal with her medical condition.

While Cooper said her Sydney gold was her most special, it also prompted memories of a chance introduction for her stepson Zac to former prime minister John Howard.

“I said, ‘This is the prime minister of Australia’,” she recalled.

“Zac just said, ‘Awesome, I live there’, and that was it.”

Cooper said her peak swimming years between 1994 and 1996 remained a vivid thrill.

But the different challenges of motherhood and family life had forced major adjustment.

“It was lots of hard work (in her swimming days) but it was just rocking and rolling and so much fun,” she said. “You were just so immersed in your life.”

Cooper is the WA Disabled Sports Association president, is chairwoman of Technology Assisting Disability and is on the board of the Ability Centre.